Ansan Region

June 20th

Today we woke up and checked the internet to see the score of the NBA finals, Go Cavs! So excited for Cleveland's victory as a city and as a basketball team.

Hasin University Vice President, Rev. Lee of Singal PROK Church and his son. 

We visited Hanshin University. The school was instrumental in the founding of the PROK because of its commitment to historical critical Biblical interpretation. The symbol of the school is the rooster because of its tendency to feed others first and because of its cry to Peter when Jesus was captured.

Our next stop was the Hunduk Church. This church is in a rural community and lives by the concept of the Kingdom of God. They work hard to engage the community by offering plots of land for cultivation (similar to our community gardens). The church also maintains its own fields and students from the seminary come to work there at harvest time. The congregation is committed to being in solidarity with the community and they helped out when a local car manufacturer closed down with over 2,000 community members loosing their jobs. The church provided food and holds regular vigils at the factory to call attention to the needs of the workers.

Then we went to the Nogog Church which is also in a rural area of Korea. This church noticed that there were many elderly in the community whose children had left to find work in the cities. This is creating a new crisis for the country that does not have an infrastructure of elderly care, nursing homes, or senior citizen's facilities. The church began by making food weekly and delivering it to area seniors. A man saw this work of the church and gave them a large donation. With that donation they started a senior day care next door to their church for those elderly who suffer from dementia or who have had strokes. We joined the residents as the church van dropped them off at their homes at the end of the day.

Pastor and administrator from the cooperative medical clinic 

The pastor is bi-vocational in addition to his work with the church and with the senior center he is also the director of a large medical cooperative. The cooperative is comprised of about 5,000 members (about a third of the community) who pay a fee to belong, they also have a voice in the administration of the medical center. Members receive medical care at a reduced rate. The center also focuses on providing care to low income members of society and migrant workers. There are three campuses including a dental clinic and also a mobile unit that can go out to the migrants working in the fields.

We ended the day going to cold buckwheat noodles at a roadside restaurant before going back to our host family.

June 21st
This morning was great. We went to the Singal PROK church to help bake bread. They make bread in their welfare center twice a week. The first time is for outreach to the homeless and low income and later in the week to sell at their coffee shop to earn money. We very much enjoyed the laughter and energy of sharing the work of baking bread together. After all of the bread was packaged the whole group of us went to the market area of the city to share lunch at a chicken shop.

Byongho and Jonathan baking bread with the church ladies checking on them. 

In the afternoon we enjoyed walking around the market looking at all of the herbs, vegetables, seafood, spices, kimchi and rice products. Then we picked up our host parents and enjoyed a walk with them in an area park, a chance to stop for coffee and then a nice dinner together. This was their first time hosting international guests and they don't speak any English (nor we any Korean) but it reminds me of the story of Pentecost that the believers, when gathered, understood one another even though they spoke different languages. We share a love of God and commitment to the church of Jesus Christ and that was the important part of what brought us together.

With our host family

June 22nd

This morning our host family's eldest son arrive from studying in the United States so we finally had a translator other than google translate on our phones to communicate. He took us to one of the family stores. The family owns a medical devise company. They have about 80 stores across Korea. Jonathan and I expected a store, like Brookstone, instead it was more like a community center. There were at least 30 senior citizens in the small shop, all using the heating beds, massage chairs and other products. They can come in every day and use the products for free and the company will provide them lunch. It is much more a ministry and community outreach than just selling a product. Yes, people buy some of the items to take home but they are really meeting a need in their community. The staff asked me to pray for them and their customers and then we took a huge group picture. It was one of the most unexpected and delightful parts of our trip.



Later in the afternoon Rev. Lee took us to the Korean Independence Hall where we learned about Korean history from 1909 to 1945 under the Japanese rule. The museum was helpful to put into context how often foreign countries have dictated the Korean people. Even at the end of 1945 when Japan left it was other countries that signed the armistice agreement that created the division on the 38th parallel between North and South Korea as a way of placating both the United States (South Korea) and Russia (North Korea) after WWII. The site had a striking monument to the dreams for reunification with large arches in the sky representing earth, humanity, and heaven reaching towards one another.


We ended the day with Rev. Lee and his wife with Korean barbecue. We have eaten so well on this trip. Lots and lots of tasty side dishes and wonderful fresh vegetables.

God we are thankful for all of the ways community is created. We give thanks for drawing people together across socioeconomic backgrounds, across age, gender and language. We pray O God for the spirit of Pentecost to be present throughout the world; creating unity and understanding across our differences. Amen.